Passive Optical Networks (“PON”) are used for communication purposes because they offer extremely large bandwidth in single fibers. Optical Distribution Networks (“ODN”) make it possible to send communications at rates of billions of bits per second to locations far removed from the sender, at a relatively low price, with great accuracy, and with high security and with little possibility of electromagnetic interference. In particular, as we become more dependent of communication systems that employ optical fiber in the form of fiber optic cables that are subject to accidents, and that can become degraded in their performance, it is important to be able to test both the communication media and systems to assure that faults are rapidly detected, located efficiently, and quickly fixed.
A wide variety of test apparatus for testing optical fibers have been developed and used heretofore. However, such apparatus are often expensive, complicated to use, and require careful reference measurement to be carried out. In addition, there are instruments available to test the various features of communications protocols. However, when systems that are expected to communicate fail, there are multiple possible locations and different types of faults that can be considered as causes of the failure. For example, a communication can be interrupted because either the sending or the receiving apparatus has failed, because the transmission medium has failed, or because there is a flaw relating to the communication protocols that are being employed. In fact, there can be multiple faults at one time. Testing all of the possibilities to identify and correct a communication system failure can easily become a difficult, time-consuming, and costly matter, given the divergent kinds of tests and test apparatus that may be required.
There is a need for apparatus and methods to provide an inexpensive, expeditious, and simple suite of tests to identify the possible faults in modern communication systems.